SEASON: 7 EPISODE: 2
Episode Overview:
Welcome back to Becoming Preferred, the podcast for business professionals and entrepreneurs who want to level up their game and become preferred in the markets they serve.
If you run a B2B company, there’s a high probability you’ve hit a very specific growth ceiling: you built a fantastic business through relationships and word-of-mouth, but the moment you try to scale beyond referrals, your marketing completely stalls out. You keep tweaking your website, changing ad agencies, and wondering why it’s not converting.'
Our guest today says the problem isn't your marketing tactics; it's that you are performing the wrong show. Matt Wolfe is a brand strategist, Partner at Brand3, and one of the country's most experienced StoryBrand Certified Guides, having transformed the messaging of over two hundred and fifty organizations across thirty industries.
But what makes him truly unique in this space is his background: before moving into full-time marketing, Matt spent twenty-five years on professional stages, including Broadway. He understands better than anyone alive why some scripts grip an audience and others cause them to walk out by intermission. Today, we are unpacking his 'Brand-First Rule,' how to scale a relationship-driven B2B beyond referrals, and how to make your marketing look less digital and significantly more human. Join me for my conversation with Matt Wolfe.
Guest Bio:
Matt Wolfe spent 25 years on professional stages, including Broadway, before pivoting to full-time marketing. That path looks like a detour until you hear him explain why a business’s brand message works the same way a script does. Every word either earns an audience’s attention or loses it, and most companies are performing the wrong show.
Today, Matt is a Partner at Brand3 and one of the most experienced StoryBrand Certified Guides in the country, with work across 250+ organizations in more than 30 industries. He helps B2B leaders who’ve built businesses on strong word-of-mouth figure out why their marketing doesn’t reflect that fact - and fix it at the source. Brand3’s Scale Beyond Referrals program helps relationship-driven B2Bs tell a story that connects with their ideal clients. In a world that’s growing more digital, his team makes marketing more human - and makes B2Bs the obvious choice to their ideal clients.
Resource Links:
- Website: https://www.brand3.net/
- Website: https://www.mattwolfemarketing.com/
- Product Link: https://www.brand3.net/ways-to-engage/
Insight Gold Timestamps:
03:40 You have this fantastic phrase where you say that most B2B companies are performing the wrong show with their marketing
05:05 That's really all that is at the end of the day, is the right story to the right people
06:36 StoryBrand says make your audience the hero of the story
07:53 I think StoryBrand has moved the needle on that conversation
11:43 I'm going to make this bold statement, and then I'll qualify it: Demographics don't work
13:47 At the end of the day, these sales only happen through carefully built trust and relationships
17:02 We've been using the phrase: trust recession
19:30 You have a strict brand first rule that says, "Stop marketing a message you haven't built yet"
21:22 The game's going to be won or lost on that header and whether or not that says to somebody, "I'm telling your story"
23:39 Good marketing is shining the spotlight back on the ideal client
25:06 If you don't articulate the problem that they're facing, there just is no story
26:57 We just have to keep asking the question, how will this digital thing that we're doing now lead to a human encounter?
32:36 If you do this right, you're putting more humans in front of the right ideal client humans to have these great encounters
36:03 We were like, "Why aren't we telling that story?"
38:34 Matt Wolfe, the website is brand3.net
38:41 Your personal website as well mattwolfemarketing.com
38:58 You can also go to scalebeyondreferrals.com
39:13 We have a podcast called The CEO's Heart for Service
Connect Socially:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/MattWolfeMarketing
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brand3marketing/
The CEO's Heart for Service Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ceos-heart-for-service-scaling-business-without/id1896298694
Email: mwolfe@brand3.net
Sponsors:
Rainmaker LeadGen Platform Demo: https://calendar.summit-learning.com/widget/booking/JKItVP7WErmCBjU2cCIx
Rainmaker Digital Solutions: https://www.rainmakerdigitalsolutions.com/